ALPA – The Airline Pilots’ Association, said that its members have “voted overwhelmingly” in favour of taking industrial action, including possible withdrawal of service.

The industrial action is in response to the sacking of 69 Air Malta pilots back in June. ALPA’s Executive Committee, in a statement on Thursday, said that over the past months it has held “numerous discussions in an attempt at breaking the current stalemate with Air Malta´s management.”

On the 5th of June Air Malta sacked 69 out of its 134 pilots, just a few days after having reassured the Executive Committee of the Association that no pilots would, in fact, be made redundant, the union said.

ALPA said that a few days prior to such reassurance the Chairman of the company, Notary Charles Mangion, is on record as having declared that “the current financial packages regulated by the current Collective Agreement would remain untouched.”

Proposals, described as “final” by the company, were inexplicably withdrawn hours prior to a vote being taken at an Extraordinary General meeting of the members of the Association. “Our members were therefore denied the opportunity to vote in relation to such proposals,” the union said.

ALPA said it was requested by the company to forward its own proposals. “This, in a clear attempt to further stall the negotiation process.”

These proposals were sent on the 11th of July. To date, the company has not provided its views in this respect, ALPA said.

“Such delaying tactics are unacceptable,” the union said. “It is clear that Air Malta is negotiating in bad faith and that its only interest is to undermine collective conditions of employment through opportunistic and predatory behaviour.”

The Executive Committee went on to say that it is also baffled by what it describes as the management’s “utter lack of direction, as well as by its incapability to conduct and conclude negotiations with long-serving employee representatives.”

ALPA said that it has therefore been forced to register a number of industrial disputes relating to breaches of conditions of employment, including the unilateral and arbitrary termination of employment, breach of rights enshrined in the Collective Agreement currently in force, as well as the irregularities relating to the negotiation procedure preceding the declaration of collective redundancies.

The Executive Committee of the Association would like to express its sincere gratitude to its members for their support and conviction throughout this arduous process.

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